Tibbetts takes post with Walton County schools

Former Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts has landed a new job in Walton County.

KATIE TAMMEN / Daily News

Former Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts has landed a new job in Walton County.

The longtime educator filled an open position in the school district’s instruction and curriculum department after an interview process, according to Superintendent Carlene Anderson.

“There’s nothing in curriculum and instruction she couldn’t do, according to her interview,” said Anderson, who did not personally participate in the interviewing process.

Tibbetts began her new duties Dec. 19, the day after the School Board gave administrators the green light to hire her.

“The people over here are just so friendly,” Tibbetts said. “… I couldn’t have asked for a better place to be working.”

She will wear a variety of hats as the coordinator for instructional support services.

She will work in the district’s dropout prevention program, in virtual education, the gifted program and in small pieces of the exceptional education program, according to Kay Dailey, Walton County’s supervisor of instruction and curriculum.

Tibbetts also will work on one of the district’s Race to the Top programs and another funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“My passion is K-12 education,” the former principal, guidance counselor and teacher said. “The things that I will be doing are the things I know.”

Tibbetts lost to Mary Beth Jackson in the Okaloosa superintendent’s election in August.

Tibbetts said she had other job opportunities, but chose Walton County so she could stay close to home.

“There are a lot of things you have to think about when you’re invested in your family and friends,” said Tibbetts, who was born in Walton County. “I feel like I’m coming back home, and in a lot of ways reuniting with a lot of people I’ve known all my life.”